I've taken a couple of 240 hits on my fingers and was not happy about it. It hurts a lot. 120VAC I've been zapped with lotsa times and I just shrugged it off and carried on.
That's one reason I'm happy we don't have the 240V here in North America. Even though 120 kinda sucks for heavy loads, the voltage is low enough that at least you stand a reasonable chance of not having any issues. Have been hit many times myself, last one was replacing an outlet at my parents house, and didn't know something was back-feeding from another circuit. Go to strip the wires and its like: "Nope. THAT still has power going to it!"
One of my roommates in college didn't even bother to turn off the breaker before changing things. Stupid, dangerous, and lazy. Funny I was watching him change a bad light switch, and I remember telling him to at least turn off the power. The panel was only about 15' away in the main hallway. He's just like f- it and starts replacing it, anyway, while the rest of us watched TV. Sure enough, few minutes later...
BANG! and no more power. He's just like "
whoops..." It was hilarious in the end. Brand, shiny new switch and cover plate with this long-ass black skidmark on the wall behind it.